Michal Barták

Fantastic people and environment, wanna join? 👀

New preprint!

“Climate-driven specialisation in plant–pollinator networks peaks outside the tropics”

Testing the long-debated latitudinal specialisation gradient using >3,400 quantitative networks (>110,000 interactions). Led by @saileesakhalkar.bsky.social and myself ☺️

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Someone’s dream PhD position is open right now👀

ggplot2 4.0.0 A new major version of ggplot2 has been released on CRAN. Find out what is new here.

I am beyond excited to announce that ggplot2 4.0.0 has just landed on CRAN.

It's not every day we have a new major #ggplot2 release but it is a fitting 18 year birthday present for the package.

Get an overview of the release in this blog post and be on the lookout for more in-depth posts #rstats

Looking for a PhD? I am advertising two industry sponsored PhD projects. One on black soldier fly genetics with #betabugs and another on searching insect biodiversity for novel enzymes #Syngenta. Get in touch if you are interested!! bbsrcdtp.lifesci.cam.ac.uk/available-ic...

We are looking for Erasmus interns to help with our bird projects at Lammi Biological Station:
www.helsinki.fi/en/research-...

Apply here and specify that you are interested in the great tit project:
www.lyyti.in/Application_...

Excited to soon start my new role as Academy of Finland Research Fellow 🦋🐛I’ll later be advertising a PhD position on tiger moth colour and genomics, and will be speaking at #ESEB2025 this week if you want an idea of what’s going on!

We're hiring a postdoc!👀
Join us to explore the amazing world of (deep-sea) fish vision! We're looking for a curious researcher to work with histology, FISH, and even crispr!
Apply by 14 July 2025.
Thks for sharing!
#PostdocJobs #DeepSea #FishVision #Evolution www.fishevo.com/open-postdoc...

Fieldwork and LGBTQ+ Identities: Queering the Outdoors Synopsis. Fieldwork is considered an integral component of research within conservation biology and ecology. Oftentimes, institutions and researchers share

With Pride Month🏳️‍🌈 at its peak, it’s a good time to revisit this powerful piece by Kamran & Jennings (2023): fieldwork must be made inclusive and safe by recognising differences, rethinking planning, protocols, and hearing LGBTQ+ voices. Safety is inclusion. #PrideInSTEM
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/icb/...

Ennätysmäärä osallistujia juhlisti stipendejä ja apurahoja Helsingin yliopiston rahastoista | Helsingin yliopisto Helsingin yliopiston opiskelijoille ja tutkijoille jaettiin tänä keväänä yli 360 apurahaa, stipendiä tai palkintoa yliopiston omista rahastoista. Rahastot perustuvat Helsingin yliopistolle tehtyihin l...

Opiskelijamme ja tutkijamme saivat tänä keväänä yli 360 apurahaa tai stipendiä työnsä tueksi. Paljon onnea stipendiaateille! 🌹 Apurahoja ja stipendejä jaetaan rahastoista, jotka perustuvat meille tehtyihin lahjoituksiin. Lämmin kiitos lahjoittajat! 💙 Apurahahaku on vuosittain tammikuussa.

Please share. We are hiring domestic/international #PhD students to work on citizen science, insect migration/conservation at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. If interested, please email me. You can find more about our research interests here. shawanchowdhury.com.

It’s out! Check out the full paper here: doi.org/10.1017/S026.... Would love to hear your thoughts! 🌔🦋

🧵 8/8 - 🚨TAKE HOME MESSAGES🚨:
🌔🦋Moths are important pollinators despite being rare.
📝More data on nocturnal pollination in communities is needed.
🌺Current literature is biased towards specialised relationships.
⚙️Effective method selection depends on the research scale, detail, and focal question.

🧵 7/8—We hope our review will inspire researchers to include the understudied nocturnal pollinators in future research, advancing our understanding of the vital interactions hidden under the cover of night. We also hope we provided guidance on which aspects to focus on and which methods to use.

🧵 6/8 - We greatly appreciated the incredible effort of researchers studying these intriguing relationships💪! We found that current knowledge is biased towards specialised relationships, and the general lack of comprehensive datasets hinders our true understanding of moths in pollination.

🧵 5/8 - We then looked at the methods used to study nocturnal moth pollination in the tropics. We found that the methods ranged from simple but efficient observations📷 and pollination experiments🔬 to modern technology and metabarcoding🧬. A trade-off between precision and scale was apparent here.

🧵 4/8 - We were surprised to find that in some places, moths pollinate a high proportion of plant species (see the figure). At the same time, moths seem to be very rare flower visitors. Such findings challenge the conventional presumption of moths being minor pollinators!

🧵 3/8 - We further investigated the importance of moths at the community level using a synthesis of three distinct cues: proportions of plants with moth-attracting pollination syndromes, proportion of actually moth-pollinated plant species, and relative abundance of moths in communities.

🧵2/8 - Tropical hawkmoths and settling moths are attracted to the nectar of blooming nightflowers, but are they effective pollinators? Effective moth pollination was evidenced in more than 100 species of plants where moths served as primary or secondary pollinators, greatly impacting seed set🌱

🚨New paper on tropical moth pollination 🧵1/8 - What happens in tropical ecosystems when the day ends?🌔🦋 Our new review that @robtrop.bsky.social and I wrote highlights moths’ vital role in pollination and outlines research gaps, challenges and biases. Sharing valued! Link: doi.org/10.1017/S026...

Grateful for the opportunity to present our very recently accepted review paper on Nocturnal Moths as Pollinators in the Tropics that @robtrop.bsky.social and I wrote at the #OIKOSFin2025. Stay tuned for the full paper coming soon!

Great kick-off by my team @aplantaginis.bsky.social at #OIKOSFin25! 🎉 @zowioudendijk.bsky.social shared fascinating insights on the evolution of reflex bleeding in Arctiinae, and @theobrown.bsky.social made a compelling case for 'why to pay to be lazy'(—if you’re a toxic butterfly!) 🦋🔥

Excited to kick off my PhD at the @helsinki.fi with a talk about my doctoral research plans at the 34th LUOVA Spring Symposium

Global meta-analysis shows action is needed to halt genetic diversity loss - Nature A comprehensive meta-analysis of global terrestrial and marine genetic diversity covering more than three decades of research demonstrates rapid loss of genetic diversity and identifies conservation i...

Out now in @nature.com! Our comprehensive meta-analysis of global terrestrial and marine genetic diversity demonstrates rapid loss of genetic diversity and identifies conservation interventions that could mitigate this process
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪🌍🦤🧬
#consgen #PopGen

Hi, I just found this, what a great opportunity to connect, can I join? Exciting tiger moth stuff coming.